IFS and Prayer
Two powerful tools for healing and restoration
In my practice, I use Internal Family Systems (IFS) to help people connect with the parts inside of them, and prayer to help people connect with their Heavenly Father. I have permission to share something profound that happened in a recent session, and no identifying information has been included.
“We All Have Parts” is a wonderful book by Colleen West that helps the reader understand how each one of us made up our “true self,” (which is our soul and the essence of God in us), and a number of other amazing and hardworking “parts.” Each part has a role, some have jobs, and they all have their own positive intention for our lives.
Natalie Hoffman (flyingfreenow.com) has a podcast episode called “A Story About a Family, a Bus, and a Food Fight” (https://www.flyingfreenow.com/197/). She describes our internal parts by having listeners picture a bus, with you - your “true self” - as the driver.
We have vulnerable, often younger, parts that hold past wounds, powerlessness, or shame, and because we don’t want to feel the emotions that are associated with those parts, they have been banished (or exiled) to the back of the bus.
The rest of the bus is made up of protector parts. On one side of the bus are “manager” parts. They are proactive in how they protect us. They’ll do whatever is necessary to keep the exiled parts in the back of the bus. For example, a super-organized, perfectionistic, over-functioning part might come across as controlling, but its intention is to make sure everyone is where they’re supposed to be, when they’re supposed to be there, so you don’t ever feel out of control. An angry teenager part might seem to sulk, but its intention might be to ensure you don’t get dragged into doing things you don’t really want to do.
There are also reactive protectors, called “firefighters.” Just as a firefighter charge in to douse real flames, possibly causing collateral damage in the form of water damage, these protectors simply want to douse the flames of emotion as quickly as possible. They’re like, “The managers aren’t doing a very good job of keeping those parts in the back. We’re starting to feel that stuff. We need to swoop in and snuff it out!” A firefighter part that reaches for alcohol (or drugs or the phone) might simply be trying to prevent overwhelm.
In the therapy session my client said they felt “flawed.” From a spiritual perspective, we know that “I’m flawed” (and its twin, “There’s something wrong with me,”) is a lie from the enemy. I encouraged my client to renounce the lie, as we’ve done with other negative beliefs.
My client was was reluctant to renounce the lie. After approaching it from a couple different angles, I came to believe that a “part” was holding onto the belief.
Shifting to an IFS approach, I had my client ask the part what its job was and what it was afraid would happen if it didn’t do its job. Its initial response seemed reasonable. It said its job was to “check the facts” so that my client “wouldn’t lose credibility.” Something didn’t sit right with the response, however, and I had my client ask if the part was a “part” of them, or separate from them.
After a moment, my client said they felt like it was separate. “Like a tumor, malignant…,” like it had “infiltrated” all the surrounding tissue.
I had my client ask what its intention was.
“To keep me down with the façade of the opposite,” (meaning perfection).
In that moment, I clearly realized that this was not a “part” of the client at all, but something IFS refers to an “unattached burden.” However, I knew that I knew this was much more insidious and had been sent by the enemy. I had a vision of this “thing” flowing between the curves of my client’s brain, dividing, and going in multiple directions at once, but never actually entering the brain tissue itself.
“It has to leave,” I declared.
I prayed aloud to cast it away.
As I was praying, I could see the malignancy reverse directions. I got an image of a hole in my client’s head, behind the left ear, with some sort of tunnel leading to the exit from the inside. A large, clear glass was held there by invisible hands and the malignant tumor poured out as a thick, disgusting sludge. The sight of it made my stomach churn, but this “thing” was leaving her mind!
I asked the Lord to fill those places with His love and light.
My client reported feeling more peaceful and calm.
This experience was a powerful reminder that healing is both deeply human and deeply spiritual. IFS helps us listen with compassion to our internal world, and prayer invites God to illuminate what is true. When something burdens us that isn’t really “ours” to carry, He is faithful to expose it and remove it. My client walked away more peaceful—and I walked away in awe of the God who heals the mind and restores the soul.